Canterbury election candidates promising a 0% rate rise have been challenged to ‘"show us the money".
Waimakariri Mayor Dan Gordon said his opponent will need to cut $6.37 million from the budget to keep a 0% rate rise promise.
More than 50 people turned out at the Mandeville Sports Centre on Tuesday evening to hear from Waimakariri mayoral, Oxford-Ohoka ward, local community board and Environment Canterbury (ECan) candidates.
A team of six candidates, known as Standing Together for Waimakariri and led by councillor and mayoral candidate Paul Williams, has been promising a 0% rate rise for the 2027/28 financial year.
"Show us the money," Mr Gordon said.
"Each and every year you have sat with me around the council table, and I've invited you to come up with savings, but you haven't proposed any savings which you've managed to get support around the table," he said to Mr Williams.
But Williams maintained he could balance the books by selling off "non-strategic properties", delaying major projects like the Rangiora library extension, and cutting spending on speed humps, cycle lanes, electric vehicles and the council’s Local Government New Zealand membership.
"There’s so much waste," he said.
The council’s debt, which sits at $220 million and is projected to rise to around $324 million over the next 10-years, came under attack.
Oxford-Ohoka ward candidate Gordon Malcolm said he did not want "your children and my children to be used as a credit card".
His running mate Rob Ballantyne said he did not consider cycle lanes, speed humps "and anything else which sucks up productivity as good infrastructure".
Gordon said the council used debt to fund major infrastructure projects, which allowed it to spread the cost over 25-years, paying it off at 4% a year.
The council took out a 25-year loan of $100 million to pay for the recovery from the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, and had proposed projects in the Long Term Plan including the Rangiora library extension, the Rangiora eastern link road and $20 million for the Mandeville drainage upgrade.
"We are required to include it in the Long Term Plan. If we don’t have it in there we can't do it," Gordon said.
"But the library has already been pushed back and when the time comes the council will decide whether we can afford it."
Williams said he had made an Local Government Official Information request to council chief executive Jeff Millward, which revealed the earthquake loan was around $53 million.
"Where's the rest of the money?," he asked.
But Gordon said the balance has reduced because the council is paying it off.
"As anyone who has a mortgage will know, if you are keeping up your repayments, over time the balance comes down."
When his opponents persisted with arguing the council had no plan to pay off its debt, Gordon tabled a copy of the 2024/34 Long Term Plan.
"There's a section on debt repayment — take a look," he said.
Oxford-Ohoka ward councillor Niki Mealings said the district has grown by around 8000 people over the last three years.
"That's about a town the size of Oxford every year. Imagine if we had to build the infrastructure for Oxford every year (instead of over 25 years)."
"It's intergenerational infrastructure, so why should you pay the full cost now, when people will benefit for the next 50, 100 or 150 years."
Fellow councillor Tim Fulton said the council was not a business, but "a group of people which come together to make intergenerational investments".
"You could cut costs, but you can't cut this community."
Community board candidate Ethan Nicholson (26) said he wanted to bring a youth perspective.
Oxford-Ohoka Community Board chairperson Sarah Barkle said local knowledge was important and she questioned why some of the candidates had not mentioned the Oxford, Ohoka, Swannanoa and Mandeville communities in their opening speeches.
- ECan candidates Grant Edge, John Faulkner and Claire McKay also spoke, but Tane Apanui and Frankie Karetai Wood-Bodley were unable to attend.
- Oxford-Ohoka Community Board, Ohoka-Swannanoa sub-division candidates Wayne Godfrey, Simon Hall and Ray Harpur were also unable to attend.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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